YEREVAN. July 23 (Interfax) - Armenia will continue working with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group in order to find a solution to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh and is calling on Azerbaijan to refrain from using force, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a government meeting on Thursday.
"Armenia will continue to cooperate with the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group in order to peacefully resolve the conflict," Pashinyan said, adding that the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic should be a full-fledged participant in these talks.
"Azerbaijan should publicly renounce the use of force and take trustworthy steps to end its anti-Armenian rhetoric," he said.
"These talks should be meaningful," Pashinyan said, adding that Azerbaijan views the "talks as a continuation of the war, [...] thus making the entire negotiating process pointless."
"The talks will have a point if Azerbaijan steps away from its maximalist approach and is ready to compromise," he said.
In the wake of July's escalation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, Pashinyan also stressed the need to "strengthen the common security system of Armenia and Karabakh."
"In this respect, I firmly support our close cooperation with Stepanakert," he said.
Azerbaijan's statement about a possible missile strike on the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant "should be the subject of a serious international investigation, because it demonstrates Azerbaijan's essence as a terrorist state," Pashinyan said.
He also called for organizing permanent monitoring of compliance with the ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
"In actual fact, the ceasefire monitoring that existed before the pandemic was very limited. New international monitoring should be permanent and should have mechanisms that will make it possible to register ceasefire violations by the parties. Such monitoring can be carried out by the office of the personal representative of the OSCE chairperson-in-office, who has a lengthy record of work in the region," Pashinyan said.